The Ship Read online

  Chapter 3 – The Discovery

  He had only heard it for a split second but David was quiet sure his mind would never forget that sound. As unbelievable as it was there was the smallest of voices crying out desperately from behind the fridge. “Help me! Oh please help I know you are there, your device has me wedged between my ship and the wall.” It was a few moments before David’s mind could processes what all that could mean. Apparently there was not only a very small person of some sort, but a spaceship as well. And really the only thing to do when there is a fridge in the way is to move it.

  Ordinarily fridge moving is not all that hard or complicated on its own. A tug, a scoot, a tug again until it’s out of the place you want it gone from. This of course all happened after last Christmas, which meant that Melissa’s DEAR MOTHER had given them a four chamber, stainless steel food-hiding monster that easily outweighed any he had seen before. With a crack of the back and a sigh David set to the onerous task of shifting slowly this way, then that, then back, over and over until there was a sizeable amount of room behind the fridge for a grown man to move about in. He shuffled from side to side wondering where the clicks, bangs, and most of all, voices had come from. He was beginning to just accept the crazy theory and was off on his way out the kitchen to the loony house when he heard the voice again, “Hey! Hey you big idiot I’m down heeeeere!” David sensed a wetness of the pants would soon be coming.

  Many people, obviously, will not get the chance to host intergalactic mixers in their kitchen. Hopefully the chosen few besides David who are lucky enough to be visited by an intelligent, well-spoken alien will respond better than him. Having grown tired of running to and fro between the living room and the kitchen, David accepted change into his usual routine and passed out, falling unconscious to the floor. Obviously, being an alien relatively new to the area, the little creature that had spoken from behind the fridge did not quite know what to think of this and sat down with a sigh and waited for him to awaken.

  After a few restful moments on his dining room floor with his feet in the kitchen, David came to and was greeted by the sight of a three-inch turquoise colored being sitting, or perhaps squatting is a better word, on his chest. He promptly screamed and scrambled away quite upsetting the small blue thing and sending it tumbling to the floor while he himself curled up in a corner and shivered like a small child. The thing, whatever it was, gave a small noise of pain and stood up. As stated before it stood no taller than 3 inches or so and was bluish in color, aside from those strange features it had four legs spaced out equally around its body. The rest of it was altogether humanoid with two basic arms and hands, a neck, head, and face. On each hand were only 4 long jointed fingers, one of which came from the center of the palm. It had three fairly human eyes spaced apart on its head and no other very discerning features aside from a strange turban-like hat with a bright green jewel in the center. “You don’t have to move so fast you know, I’m a tenth your size and could hardly put up much of a fight.” David responded quickly by saying nothing and proceeded to gawk at the strange little thing pacing his kitchen tile. “I mean you jumped away like I woke you up with a knife and a smile, I was only making sure you hadn’t died.” David’s words still quite managed to avoid his mouth and all that came out was a fish-like gasping noise. The Visitor could tell his senses would be gone for a while and proceeded to talk at some length about himself and all sorts of amazing stories and histories that one couldn’t possibly remember or write down, so David simply sat and listened and, occasionally, made gasping fish noises.

  “So? What do you think?” The Captain prompted him. “About my ship I mean, do you think you could help me? I mean after that horrible starship fight I just described for hours in elaborate detail the old girl isn’t looking so hot. I’m lucky to be here.” David was still sitting in the corner hugging his knees but was much more at ease. Having heard the tiny traveler’s amazing story, the incredible foes he had overcome on his desperate mission across the galaxies, he had decided, if anything, The Captain was a brave and fearless leader of his people and it was his civic duty to help him. “There is just one problem you see,” David said “I don’t know anything about fixing advanced tiny alien starships.” There was a pause as the miniscule alien on his tile floor thought this over. “Well…I really...hmm. This may be a problem. How am I supposed to leave this planet?”